


The Pointy End

by woodspurge



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Hurt Johnny Lawrence, Hurt/Comfort, Whump, maybe lawrusso if you squint, no beta this is self-indulgent garbage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28570818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woodspurge/pseuds/woodspurge
Summary: [SEASON 3 SPOILERS] Takes place 3.10If Kreese had used that sai how he'd intended.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 82





	The Pointy End

**Author's Note:**

> The Kreese POV is what flashed through my mind as soon as he picked up the sai. Daniel POV is an elaboration. Maybe there will be more elaborating.... later.....  
> Italics are 'Nam flashbacks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *edit: Fixed some typos.  
> Idgaf about my writing Craft in this, but I'm happy to accept corrections on medical stuff.  
> Also, is there a discord server or something to, uh... gush about Johnny and Daniel? :)

Kreese staggered to his knees, spitting out the blood that had pooled into his mouth from his broken nose. He watched Johnny kneel over his unconscious son, shaking the boy’s shoulders in panic. Kreese glanced back at the scattered Okinawan sai on the floor behind him.

“ _I tried to tell you it was kill or be killed out here!” Captain Turner grunted as he pressed young Kreese face-down onto the bamboo platform. “But you couldn’t shed your humanity!” Turner tossed Kreese half-way over the precipice of the snake pit, the young man’s upper half dangling dangerously over the edge. “It distracted you on the mission! It distracted you here! And now you’re gonna die!”_

Johnny desperately slapped his son’s chest, begging, “Robby, please wake up.” Kreese carefully approached on silent feet behind the kneeling man.

_Kreese grasped a loose length of bamboo under the platform, twisted, and rammed the sharp end into the captain’s thigh._

Kreese slammed the sharpened blade of the sai into Johnny’s back, a heavy thump coupled with a wet pop. After tearing the sai back out, he yanked Johnny away from Robby by the back of his collar and threw him to the ground. 

_Kreese landed blow after blow to his former captain’s body before connecting his heel with Turner’s jaw, sending the man keeling off the platform. Turner caught the edge with one hand._

Johnny’s eyes stretched wide in shock, his back arched. Blood bubbled on his lips as he drew in short pained gasps and lightning bolts of agony radiated from his chest. He rolled onto his front and desperately tried to crawl away. 

_Rockets tore through the camp around them and star-spangled choppers hovered overhead. Men whooped and hollered cheers of joy and relief. Kreese stared down at the man hanging on for dear life over a mass of writhing serpents. “It’s over Kreese! Pull me up!” The young man’s hesitation made Turner repeat hysterically, “Kreese, pull me up! That’s an order!”_ _  
_ _  
__Kreese calmly nodded. “You’re right, captain. I didn’t follow your lessons.”_

_Turner barked, “C’mon! What’re you waiting for?”_ _  
_   
_“I won’t make that mistake again.” Kreese shook his head. “No mercy.”_

Kreese casually sauntered over Johnny’s struggling form as blood pooled across the mat. “I thought there was still hope for you.” He twirled the sai in his fingers, leaning lower.

Johnny twisted with surprising speed to kick the dagger from his former sensei’s hands. It must’ve been his last burst of adrenaline from the fight. Just as quickly, Kreese grappled the man, forcing his knee between the other’s shoulder blade and wrenching his head back by the throat. Johnny coughed blood in a futile attempt to draw air. Kreese grunted out, “This isn’t how I wanted this to end.”

\---

A blur of white knocked the older man off Johnny in one swift kick. Daniel LaRusso screamed accusations at Kreese in a blinding rage, ready to deliver another blow, before he noticed the state of the two prone figures. “Robby? _Johnny?_ ” Daniel moved toward the blood-soaked blond but Kreese quickly rose, fists up, accepting the challenge. 

They traded rapid blows, Daniel deflecting most with a nearly impenetrable defense. Kreese mocked him for this, but they continued the exchange. In a feat of terrifying strength, the older man picked Daniel up by the waist and plowed him straight through the dojo window. They landed on the pavement in a shower of glass, a shard of which Kreese snatched up to end the younger man.

Daniel gracefully wove through Kreese’s attack, striking his pressure points and methodically disabling each of his limbs. Once LaRusso had Kreese on his knees, he drew his hand back, poised to deliver a finishing blow. In a split second, however, he couldn’t help but glance back into the dojo to see Robby kneeling over Johnny’s motionless form. A spike of emotions ran through Daniel: terror, urgency, _fury_. He struck Kreese’s skull hard enough to render the older man unconscious. Leaving him to slump down on the broken glass, Daniel flew back through the open door as a girl’s voice cried out from the parking lot, “ _Dad!”_

Dropping next to Johnny’s side across from Robby, Daniel nearly screamed, “Is he breathing? Where’s he hurt? God Robby, what _happened?_!”

A moment later, Miguel and Sam burst into the dojo. The black-and-blue student gasped, “ _Sensei!”_

“I-I- I don’t know!” Robby stuttered out. “He kicked down the door and they started fighting and- and I fought Dad, he pushed me, and I-I hit my head-" His quivering fingers traced the growing welt. "I was out. Like, _black,_ and then I wake up to you and Kreese fighting and Dad’s just- just- just-” Robby started hyperventilating. The poor boy was clearly panicking and Daniel’s tone didn’t help. 

Daniel pulled out his phone. “Ok- ok- It’s ok-” Reassuring himself about as much as the children, he dialed 9-1-1, put the phone on speaker, and dropped it on the floor. “Ok- _Johnny?_ Can you hear me?” He shook the man’s shoulder but was met with no response. Miguel ran for the first aid kit in the office. Bending down for a better view, Daniel watched Johnny’s back rise and fall in short, staggered breaths.

When the emergency operator picked up, Daniel answered their questions to the best of his ability but still lacked information. Christ, where was he even hit? The blond’s dress shirt was black and everything just looked dark and wet. Daniel glanced at the bloodied sai on the floor before eventually finding a bubbling tear in the fabric. The operator directed Daniel from there to turn Johnny onto his side so he wouldn’t asphyxiate on his own blood. When Miguel returned with the first aid kit, Daniel pressed gauze against the wound while the student provided counter-pressure to Johnny’s chest from the other side.

Sam pulled a shocked Robby away from his father’s body and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. She tried to provide a gentle, “Shhhhhh… It's gonna be ok...” but the girl was still shaking herself. A few minutes that felt like years passed in staggering silence as they waited for the ambulance to arrive.

Johnny stopped breathing. Daniel and Miguel both noticed the lack of movement almost immediately. Miguel started screaming, “What do we do? _What do we do?!_ ” Daniel could no longer feel a heartbeat through the hand pressed against Johnny’s chest.

“I don’t- I don’t-” Daniel’s ears were ringing and the frantic voices fell into the background. He tipped Johnny onto his back, pinched his nose, tilted his head, and leaned down to deliver two breaths. Daniel administered sets of chest compressions and rescue breathing for longer than he knew. It could have been seconds or hours before the ambulance arrived. Only after they pulled him off of Johnny did he register the burning in his arms. Daniel watched the EMTs work in a blur, cutting open Johnny’s shirt, slapping on defibrillator pads, delivering shocks. Somewhere along the line they got a heartbeat, strapped Johnny into a gurney, and loaded him into the ambulance along with his son. They put Kreese into a second vehicle. Daniel didn’t know how badly he’d harmed the old man and he frankly couldn’t spare the bandwidth to care.

Daniel sat limply on the floor, staring at the remaining swath of blood, red smudged across his mouth like lipstick. The trail and smears illustrated Johnny’s struggle and Daniel’s subsequent attempt to help him. He belatedly noticed a hand on his shoulder. Sam. She was shaking him.

“Dad. _Dad._ ” Her eyebrows were knit with concern as she watched her father’s eyes. “We should go to the hospital too.”


End file.
